Millions of used motor vehicles are sold each year in the United States. The term “motor vehicles” is used herein to include automobiles, trucks, sport utility vehicles, motorcycles, boats, and the like. The value of a used motor vehicle depends on many factors, including its make and model, its original value, its age, its mileage, its condition, its options, etc. A number of services provide information about the value of used motor vehicles, including the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), Kelley Blue Book, and Black Book. These services provide the information in the form of guidebooks and also digitally. Dealers of used motor vehicles typically use one or more of the used motor vehicle value services.
Dealers of used motor vehicles buy, sell, and trade used motor vehicles to enlarge, reduce, and reconfigure their inventory on a regular basis. To facilitate this, large dealer-only auctions are held periodically throughout the United States where dealers buy and sell used motor vehicles. Dealers who plan to sell motor vehicles typically provide information about the vehicles to the auction beforehand so a list can be prepared and distributed to dealers who plan to buy motor vehicles. Each motor vehicle is auctioned on an auction block for a very short period of time, typically less than a minute. The larger dealer-only auctions have several auctions occurring simultaneously. A variety of tools are available to enable the potential buyer to place a bid at an auction. For example, Berent et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,873, issued Jun. 30, 1998, discloses a system of computer workstations at remote locations that communicate with a host computer network that enables potential buyers to receive information about vehicles being auctioned and to bid on them.
In order to make an informed buying decision, a potential buyer of a used motor vehicle must gather specific information about the vehicle and then refer to one or more of the used motor vehicle value services. As a result of this time-consuming process, the potential buyer at a dealer-only auction may not have sufficient time to make an informed buying decision while a vehicle is being auctioned.
Potential buyers also need to have information about their own inventories. Dealers of used motor vehicles typically have information about their inventory stored in a database that is accessible at computers located at their dealership. While having such information at an auction would be highly desirable, there are many other situations in which it would be desirable for a dealer to retrieve the information when physically away from the dealership computers.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a method of quickly providing detailed information about a particular used motor vehicle to a potential buyer or seller.